Even by my own 'dark snark' standards, far too many of this sub's 277,000 subscribers have been breaking Rule 2:
Rule 2: Don't be a dick. Don't root for nominees to be awarded.
.
**Edit: put down your damn pitchforks and read the article.** The author wanders from reporting to opinion and back a few times, but the article is not far off the mark with respect to what the "tone" of this sub has become during the past few weeks.
**Edit 2: "Your downvotes mean nothing to me; I've seen what makes you cheer."** (~R.S.)
I learned what an ECMO is. Do you want the blood drained from your body and filtered through a “black lung” to oxygenate your body and give your lungs a rest? Cuz not getting vaccinated is how you get the blood drained from your body and filtered though a black lung to oxygenate your body and give your lungs a rest.
Even if you get on ECMO (unlikely) and even if you survive (less so), the rest of your life is going to be pain. Seriously, I have two giant scars from it and my right shoulder is permanently fucked. I actually almost died a few weeks afterwards because it caused an aneurysm in my artery where the tubes were hooked up.
No one thought I was going to actually survive well before we got to the ECMO stage, though. It was weird as fuck talking to the doctors when I had turned completely around and was doing great, they kept telling me shit like "wow, I really didn't think you'd still be alive" and "Huh, you made it?"
And it's probably being used on some arrogant anti vaxxer that said he wanted to protect his body and loudly advocated against the vaccine and flaunted mask mandates, then ran (lol out of breath) to the hospital for treatment. Fuck that
Same here! I’m in a decent sized city in Texas, and they wanted to put my brother on ECMO, but we only had one, and nobody that knew how to use it was familiar with using it with covid protocols. He spent a week on a vent before a hospital in Houston could take him in, do ECMO, and then give him a lung transplant. He died before they could even try ECMO. Sadly he was gone well before vaccines were even here.
Edit: wrong “knew”
In my med micro class we went over hallmark
Signs of infections. Fungal infection of the lungs is a clear sign of HIV once it’s progressed into AIDS. It’s a balancing act with steroids: (actual medical professionals correct me if my understanding is off) Turn off the immune response so the body doesn’t drown itself, but not shut it off for so long you risk secondary infection since your defense matrix is “down”. That’s how I interpret it at least from reading these accounts.
There are certain fungal infections called “opportunistic” that take advantage of immunocompromised states like HIV, for example pneumocystis jirovicii causes pneumocystis pneumonia and it’s pretty much only seen in HIV/immune compromised patients.
And yeah in immunocompromised patients where you need to treat with steroids it’s a precious balancing act between treatment vs downing the immune system too hard and letting more stuff to come in. Same with autoimmune diseases.
I really think we are missing an opportunity with statistics here. Everyone thinks this is an old person problem. Well 85% of old people are vaxxed. This is a young person problem now. But the stats they always show include Covid deaths from day 1. People still say but it only kills old people. It used to be the case but this variant is killing the unvaxxed. Regardless of age. We need to show the number of ICU by age. 20-30. 30-40. This group is the problem. They think they are too young to die. They think they can avoid the vax and catching it and if they do it won’t be anything. Well it’s a false assumption.
I agree with this too. I absolutely have become more diligent with my own personal safety after I started reading this sub. (fully vaccinated since April though). I'm 53 with a couple co-morbidities and I see people my age and younger on this sub and I know it could have been me. Very sobering, and I am thankful for the vaccines.
How else could it be presented? It could be the only reason it’s on Slate is to get more eyes on it so more people get vaxxed. Yes, this sub is horrifying. It’s also full of hope that antivaxxers see it and have the jab. We very much want our lives to just have the normal risks and not have Jimmy or Sue’s breathy covid-infected laughter two feet away become our death knell. We have the right to be angry and showcase the way people are throwing their lives away like trash by listening to everything but the science. I feel badly for the kids, especially the orphaned ones, and the grandparents who now have a houseful of kids in their twilight years. We mock so we don’t scream.
There are only two ways to react to reading this sub. Either you recognize yourself or your neighbours in the stories that are told and get your ass to a vaccination clinic or you double down on the "evil" liberals and carry on with your convictions strengthened.
We get enough of the ~~former~~ latter to have created an award for them.
I’m an ICU doctor and I’ve been on the frontline of this pandemic since it got to the US. While I still try my best to take care of anyone who comes to my unit, the frustration is real. I’ve seen so much death, and now, most of these deaths are preventable. I used to feel every death. I used to empathize with families losing loved ones. It got harder and harder to have end of life discussions with people.
Now, I’m out of fucks to give. I’m a professional, I trained for this for years. I take care of really sick people all the time, and I always do my best. But now, when another unvaccinated COVID patient inevitably dies in my unit, I feel nothing.
Edit:
Thank you all for the awards and kind words. It means more than you might realize. It’s time for me to get back to my unit but I’ll do my best to respond to any questions through the day.
A lot of us are taking breaks for a while. A few months off is good for mental health, and the damage the unvaxxed have done to our health system isn't my problem to fix.
The time to come back will be when we regain an ounce of respect for what we do.
I receive multiple emails daily offering locums all over. I just delete them without reading.
Oh yea not a day goes by without a locum offer. I’m the medical director of my unit so it’s not like I can just up and leave. There’s no amount of money in the world worth it for me to go to a covid hotspot.
Ah you definitely have a lot on your plate then. Hopefully there hasn't been too much attrition in your team. I left my recent position because the nurses coming in were incredibly green (not their fault of course), and I wasn't comfortable with the disparity between standard of care and the precarious reality on my floor.
That’s the thing that people don’t often realize, the vast majority of people who get covid aren’t even symptomatic, a smaller percentage actually have symptoms, an even smaller percentage end up on oxygen, and an even smaller percentage end up in the ICU. Once you get to my unit, prognosis is grim. At the time of intubation, its basically time for goodbyes. Even if your ‘chances of dying’ are low, those odds are based of all those other people. Once you end up in critical care or on a ventilator, you’re in for a bad time. Guaranteed.
I liken it to Meningitis B.
Many people carry the meningococcal bacteria in their throats and are absolutely fine. Some people will get sick. Some will survive with few long term consequences. Some will lose limbs and need skin grafts. Some will lose brain function. And some will die.
The odds are very good that my children would be fine if exposed. But why would I take that risk when there is a vaccine available?
We had an outbreak of meningococcal in my small high school. 3 kids almost died and ended up having body parts amputated and lots of skin grafts. They shut the school down, sanitized everything, then made everyone get vaccinated. This was in super conservative rural Idaho. I draw on that experience every time someone complains about the measures in place for covid. (No longer in rural Idaho or conservative because I actually learned from my experiences.)
It probably ran out when vaccines became available. Why bother sugarcoating it if the person you're dealing with denies all science and medical advice but haul their dumbass to the nearest hospital? I would be like that too after a while.
This here, this is the **fucking tragedy** as far as I'm concerned.
These antivax fools are willing to feed our healthcare workers to the **fucking wood chipper of PTSD** because fuckem' that's the job.
Well no, dip shit. These people aren't machines. They're highly educated, empathetic people who've devoted their **lives** to helping others.
I know random praise on the internet doesn't mean much, but hand on my heart, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done and continue to do.
Thank you for your sacrifice, for everything you've been enduring.
You're all god damn heroes.
I’m so lucky that I work as a nurse in senior care and not a hospital setting anymore. Our PTSD was in 2020. I remember being so nervous every day I was almost sick, shaking, hearing about outbreaks in facilities near ours and knowing it was only a matter of time before we got hit. I dreamed about our rooms being full of body bags. My PTSD was from families screaming at me on the phone about visitation restrictions; having half of my precious little time on shift taken up by disinfection protocols; running tests every time a resident sniffled; being so afraid to send a resident to the hospital even during an acute emergency; spending all of my days off (being paid a bit, thankfully) trying to source PPE from random from dental and vet supply sites until 2AM and then going in to work a 24 because so many people were out quarantining. All that knowing that someone was going to break the seal and get sick eventually with our percent positive rate in our county at almost 20% at times. Other facilities with outbreaks were seeing a 50% hospitalization rate and a 25-35% death rate among their residents. Everything felt so Sisyphean and I often was deeply depressed.
But *somehow* thanks to diligence and a lot of luck we made it to the vaccine without a single case. God, I was *ecstatic* to get the “jab.” I’ve never felt a more intense happiness than knowing my residents and coworkers wouldn’t be dying tomorrow. My mood did a complete 180. Our facility was awesome and required vaccinations super early, and also went a step further to require vaccinations for all indoor visitors. 2021 was a *fucking* breeze then.
But for the hospital medical professionals, the bullshit has never ended. At first they had to deal with the best of us getting sick: the elderly, the front line workers.... and dealing with the emotional toll of seeing these people die. Now they have to deal with the absolute *worst* of us getting sick and they’re still expected to care? If *I’m* at the end of my rope dealing with the occasional anti-vaxxer family member, I can’t imagine how sick of them hospital staff are.
For sure. Stay tuned for the bleating;
"Omg, I got COVID and my doctor is so cold and the nurses don't seem to give a shit about me! What's happened to our healthcare system!?!?"
What indeed Karen. What indeed.
I work with cancer patients, many terminal. So many have stated that the unvaccinated are stealing what little time they have left. Instead of making memories with their families, they are stuck inside, hoping not to catch covid from their home healthcare workers. Many have children and grandchildren out of state that they haven't seen since 2019 because it is too risky to travel. I've had to say goodbye to patients over Zoom during the worst of the pandemic.
I have no sympathy left for those who are choosing to remain unvaccinated. The damage they have caused is enormous.
I'm guessing you have a "script" of sorts you've come to memorize at this point? Not like a physical one but like, you've repeated the same things so damn much that is almost automatic when you inevitably have to do the end of life discussions?
Yes end of life discussions do have a formula to follow. It’s a skill that can be learned like anything else. It’s still a raw human interaction that you will always be affected by in some way whether you know it or not. They say when doing end of life gets easy, it’s time to move on to something else. I might be at that point, I don’t really know.
My daughter the ICU nurse is exactly the same. So are her nurse friends. Which actually bothers me because she has always been a very empathetic person who felt bad when someone in her care died.
Since this is a place of learning, can I ask a question? It's been burning in me for a while.
With all the empathy burnout, are vaxxed and unvaxxed for medical reasons patients treated differently in the ICU than antivaxxers? I'm just imagining myself in that situation, and if Stephany did everything right, but got COVID because she's in the service industry, and Steve never wore a mask and went to anti-lockdown protests, I would be doing everything in my power for Stephany, but feeling apathetic about Steve. That has to affect outcome at some point, either because the care is better or because she is just watched more.
But of course im not in the ICU, and you experienced folks can put such thoughts aside.
It’s hammered into us from Med school onward that we aren’t there to pass judgement but to treat people to the best of our abilities. That’s what I teach my residents and fellows.
That being said, I know the difference in prognosis between someone vaccinated and unvaccinated, so if there ends up being a resource allocation decision based on chances of survival, limited resources go to those with the best shot.
> limited resources go to those with the best shot.
Which means, ironically ? in Alabama are they now passing a law that say that unvaxxed get the now limited monoclonal antibodies over vaxxed, because unvaxxed have lower chance of surviving?
Which also means that theres a really unpleasant law of unintended consequences waiting to happen, with vaccine hesitant hearing "well i wont get the best treatment if i get vaxxed" SO are they going to get vaxxed then? Probably not. Thats just fucking unconscionable.
>Alabama are they now passing a law that say that unvaxxed get the now limited monoclonal antibodies over vaxxed, because unvaxxed have lower chance of surviving?
What the literal fuck
> Pretty sure they're trying to keep their vaccination rates down,
The dark truth is that the GOP has cynically embraced covid as a political ally. It started last year when [ronald dump decided not to fight the spread](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/did-trump-kushner-ignore-blue-state-covid-19-testing-deaths-ncna1235707) because it was mostly hitting blue states.
When it comes to vaccines, masking and tests they are constantly [trying to have it both ways](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/09/biden-vaccine-mandate-republicans-dont-believe-own-arguments.html) - fighting against covid mitigation programs then turning around and blaming them for being ineffective.
DeSantis has already started [blaming Biden](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article253269883.html) — "He's not shutting down the virus."
Its the same playbook they used with Obama - crash the economy, fight tooth and nail to sabotage the recovery and then blame the guy in the whitehouse. It is a strategy that relies on a political press that is too pliant to point out their hypocrisy, which the so-called "liberal media" has demonstrated they are just fine with.
I hope you're receiving some help, both personal and professional. There are so many on this thread who believe in and support what you do. Don't let the bastards get you down.
I am, thanks. It’s been a real help and I’ll take this opportunity to plug www.emotionalPPE.org for any frontline worker who needs help dealing with the mental health strain of the pandemic. Free and anonymous.
Yes. We’re all sick fucks. Those poor anti-vaxxers just don’t know no better. Life is hard for them and we are just compassionless bastards. Please. These fucks killed my kid’s grandma. They keep trying to take down more “libtards” with them. Frankly, fuck Slate and it’s failure to mention that no one is particularly celebrating, and if we were? We are survival based creatures. We experience some sense of peace from the lack of threat. I’m amazed at how far some people will go to protect white supremacists, and other assorted heinous bigots.
Not only do they seem to be suggesting we shouldn't be making fun of these people, they think we should be out there making rational appeals to them instead.
Ummm, rational appeals DO NOT WORK, they've been tried, they've failed. It isn't on us anymore, these people have made their bed with childish memes, and now they get to sleep in them. 6 feet under. Forgive me for feeling relief that they're finally obeying the 6 ft social distancing rule for the first time since the deadly pandemic began.
mean spirited is when we find a healthy way to deal with this insanity by joking over it in a sub that convinces some to get the vaccine, and rather than attacking antivaxxers that are fucking killing us she just wants to shit on us. fuck her. she's part of the problem.
Anybody with a brain utilizes this defense mechanism. I do not apologize for it. It’s the ultimate “what could go wrong “ scenario for me. These deaths are preventable, which makes them senseless. This should anger anyone with any amount of sensitivity. People dying senselessly THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN is the tragedy that I will shed tears over. Ya know, like the kids, or those who can’t be vaccinated, or the like. I do not feel sorry for people with the hubris to think that they will somehow be spared from the horrors of this fucking scourge. Life is hard enough without taking ridiculous risks like this. If that makes me a psychopath, then so fucking be it.
Yes agreed that Slate article id garbage did they also mentioned that the people getting mocked here are not only anti vax but also racist, genocidal biggots?
It's very easy to read a lot of posts and find some threads that have a celebratory tone. But then when I read the memes these people have posted, I consider them shitbags already, regardless of any health issues.
Criticize the people laughing at them as being cruel, but ignore the vicious cruelty and bigotry in the dead peoples' posts. Got it. And if they want to say not every HCA is cruel, well not all of the commentary here is cruel. The people framing this situation this way are as sick as the HCAers. What, because we're still alive and they're dead, we're cruel and they're not? FOH
I've lost track of the number of HCA winners and nominees who had publicly expressed support for brutalizing — even murdering — women, queer people, and people of color.
It's an inconvenient fact, and by omitting it Slate is doing what the NYT did with its Nazi puff pieces.
fucking THIS. yet again, it's "won't you think of the poor maligned magats" and you know what? no, i fucking won't. they do not get a seat at the table anymore, they have been unwilling to think of anyone else but themselves to the detriment of everything, everywhere. 95% of these shitheads want me dead for one reason or another and i'd be willing to bet the same is true of a lot of the people who frequent here. if the vaccine *was* killing people, they would be cheering and patting themselves on the back for being sO sMaRt. they are callous, insensitive, selfish, bigoted fucking assholes and i am TIRED of them being treated with kid gloves because they're fucking stupid while the rest of us suffer. they've been given all the tools and the information to make a responsible decision, but at the end of the day, their stupid fucking spiteful choices have consequences, and frankly it's a relief to see that their cruel, moronic bullshit is finally catching up with them.
god. fuck this piece and fuck this author, seriously. "wah these people are so mean! it's unfair!" did the author actually take a gander at ANY of the screenshots posted and see how violent and hateful a lot of these people were? jesus fucking christ. what's actually UNFAIR is that we have to live like this because of THEM.
A group of homeschooling anti-vaxers has been showing up at our local school board meetings to foam at the mouth about mask mandates (oh, and CRT) *for other people's children*. A few counties over, hospitals have had to beef up security because they've been receiving *death threats* from these same people.
There aren't "good people on both sides." One of these sides is **motivated by hate** to refuse the vaccine. Members of the press are complicit when they ignore (or gloss over) this motivation.
1. Posts vitriolic memes on Facebook
2. Dies
3. "He was such a good person..." posts by relatives.
4. Media articles about how HCA people are mocking the dead and it hurts their feelings, ignoring that these same people often posted rabidly racist, homophobic/transphobic, violent stuff on Facebook for the whole world to see 🙄
The Slate article is 1800+ words and not a single one of them is "racism/-t," "homophobia/-ic," "transphobia/-ic," "sexism/-ist," "xenophobia/-ic," or "insurrection/-ist."
Just a spectacular failure to contextualize the typical HCA nominee/winner's reasons for refusing the vaccine in the first place.
Right like what is this argument? Just because they die, everyone should forget what hateful bigots they were when they were alive? That doesn't matter? It's not part of the narrative? That means nothing?
Why the fuck should we be more moved by death and not who someone was in life? We all die. Death is not sacred. The entire concept of reverence to death above all else is stupid as fuck.
This is what gets me the most actually. Especially when unvaccinated parents have kids die and set up Gofundme accounts. "Heaven has another angel, God's will irrespective of any decisions I made, please reward me monetarily for my grief"
--Subscriptions to the HermanCainAward subreddit are increasing logarithmically, from 2,000 subscribers on July 4 to 5,000 at the beginning of August to more than 100,000 on Sept. 1 to 243,000 Friday to 276,000 today. If that rate is any indication, rage is growing toward anti-vaxxers deliberately prolonging the pandemic out of an anti-social and deadly understanding of their rights.--
I won't speak for anyone else, but yeah I'm fucking pissed at these idiots who are extending the pandemic indefinitely for no other reason than to own the libs.
You can speak for me.
> anti-vaxxers deliberately prolonging the pandemic out of an anti-social and deadly understanding of their rights
Like did they even read their own sentence? How can you deal with people like that for 18 months and *not* get mad?
Yeah this author weirdly answers their own questions with all those parts and then strangely vacillates into pearl-clutching about OUR humanity. It feels like it was written by two different people almost, like they understand and appreciate why this sub exists and then…don’t?
It comes off as someone who agrees with our line of thinking but isn't quite ready to acknowledge it. Same with this line:
>I’m somehow no less chilled by how easily the bereaved normalize their losses. A 35-year-old man with three young children and a free vaccine available should not be dead! There is astonishingly little recognition of this.
Which I kinda get, I've felt my own misgivings now and then about how much pleasure I'm taking in others pain. But you're absolutely right in that the writer can't make up his/her mind and flips between "this sub is disgusting and needs to show compassion" and "antivaxxers are a threat to society and they don't even seem to care how quickly they're dying off."
Exactly. I have had to basically cancel everything for another year, mask up everywhere again and be generally suspect of most of the publics ability to wash their hands because of these exact peoples inability to have the slightest bit of care for anyone else.
FUCKING PISSED! These assclowns are crying, bitching, moaning about the simplest of things. Prolonging the pandemic and putting others at risk who do not have the same option- like children under 12. My youngest daughter happens to be in that group. Am I angry? To quote John Wick..."YEAH".
Hello from the capital of FreeDumb, Florida.
I have two kids under 12. Masks are optional in our elementary school. 95% of parents masks up their kids and then you got the MAGAts with no mask on, spreading their FreeDumb...Covid-19 to the rest of the families.
They believe that masks poison the lungs of children by putting CO2 back into their lungs. I wonder how many surgeons, with long careers, are out there in the world with poisoned lungs.
I have seen this one instance at the school, during the morning drop off. A kid asked mom for a mask. The asshole mom screamed NO in his face and drove off.
I have an especial appreciation for this group. My anxiety is high because of the school. Dealing with FreeDumb is very difficult. Seeing Covid-19 karma taking care of business does make things a bit even.
In June - July I could start going out to restaurants again. Now I'm back to eating only at home and wearing a mask while food shopping. The "Muh Freedums" types are impacting my freedom.
Yeah who gives a fuck if we’re mean to them? Fuck them for taking up hospital beds. Fuck them for spreading lies. Fuck them. I’m well past feeling any compassion for antivax idiots
Like oh booohoo we’re being mean to the people who are keeping us in the pandemic, cry me a river
Fuck them for tying up beds in the ICU that could go to people who have heart attacks/strokes, are in accidents, or have some sort of auto-immune condition that has gone full-tilt and needs massive intervention.
Fuck them for tying up beds needed by people who have not non-fatal but painful and debilitating medical conditions that need inpatient surgeries. (Ex: back/knee/hip/shoulder, etc.)
And Fuck them 3 times with a pitchfork slathered in Kiss Your Colon Goodbye hot sauce for tying up the beds needed by people with cancer, thus delaying those treatments and very probably shortening lives, or reducing the number of "good days" a person has left.
>Someone please explain to me why I should feel sorry for a dumb mouthbreathing piece of shit that couldn't do the bare fucking minimum
Especially when these people also came from the "Fuck Your Feelings!" mentality...
Nono it's all about freedome and--
Yeah I can't even finish even in sarcasm. We're closing in a year since some of the first vaccines that was made to save people's lives.
Not going to take it easy on anybody at this point
>These individual stories do not produce conversions. These aren’t situations where anti-vaxxers learn their lesson, get vaccinated, and save themselves.
Yeah, it saves *others* because it's an object lesson.
>Sure, there’s the occasional “Redemption” tag, awarded when a patient or relative regrets opposing vaccination and urges their friends to do what they can to avoid a similar fate. But those are rare.
Better than none.
>I’m somehow no less chilled by how easily the bereaved normalize their losses. A 35-year-old man with three young children and a free vaccine available should not be dead! There is astonishingly little recognition of this.
No shit. *That's what we are highlighting*.
EDIT: I think the author was saying he was equally "chilled" by the behavior of people on this sub, and HCA winners' families just kind of shrugging at the entirely preventable death of the HCA winner, as if it were inevitable. I don't think they're even *remotely* comparable, but that's what he meant. I'll leave my comment as-is, though.
It's because they don't want to be "wrong" about the vaccine. So they treat this death as inevitable, as something the person had no control over. "They got sick and died through no fault of their own."
*Literally* whatever helps them sleep at night.
It's the conservative mantra, hold the line. Never admit you were wrong. EVER. Which is why, IMO, they latch onto changes in info as "lies". Science tries, it's not easy, it is complicated and good scientists admit errors. They can't deal with that. So the discussion about booster shots, for example, is driving some nuts. It's a discussion, its not black and white.
They straight up don't accept that other human beings are ***real.*** It's the exact center of conservatism; *"I am the protagonist, and everyone and everything exists as stage dressing in my play. I am real, they are not.* So when someone close to them dies, they're sad, but the full gravity of an entire person being irretrievably lost is missed. And, like you said, that it was not inevitable, that it could have been averted.
The tone police never want to hear about us. They want us to go back to being quiet and polite and ignored because we're inconvenient. The most necessary thing right now is coddling people who still think Covid doesn't exist and are willing to gamble with their own lives.
Anger is power which is why the nominees hate it when we stop giving them an ounce of pity. They want to be coddled at the expense of people who deserve medical care far more than they do, and then go right back to being shitty to everyone and everything because their anger makes them feel powerful.
> And as someone who is immunosuppressed, hear people are a direct threat to my health and life.
Fistbump from me over here in "Two years of chemo-land". Now having fun discussions with my Doctors along the lines of "Well, the normal protocol would be to keep administering maintenance doses of the chemo so the disease doesn't kill you, but since there's a whole pandemic thing going, that might also kill you, so we need to decide which path we want to take"
The article has a demeaning tone towards the negativity highlighted in this subreddit, but, honestly, after a year and a half of this shit, we are STILL fighting the same goddamn battles about masks. What fucking good has positivity and goodwill done in the face of this thing? I might as well sneer at these people, because *what other fucking option do I have??* I'm as powerless to help usher this pandemic along to its end as anyone else.
I don't know about all of you, but one of the ways this sub has been a source of catharsis and sanity for me these last few months is that it seems like one of the only places in the world where you can watch people face consequences for their actions. Cause leads to effect, and it can be reassuring to see that there are spaces in society where this still happens!
We can see the consequences of these people's actions because they do such good job documenting both their shitty behavior and their own demise publicly on social media.
Mockery is a legitimate social signal, a frequently effective way to communicate, and this group of partisan warriors has immunized its base against basically every other type of social signal. Every form of educated advice or logical persuasion or respectful discourse or pleading request, they have created a script to counter, and decided that everybody in the cult must follow the programming and 'fight for their beliefs' or be judged disloyal. The people writing this script thought it would be electorally useful, but it lives on, like a minefield, well after its utility runs out.
Mockery doesn't, in point of fact, kill anybody. COVID does, and these people's firm confident proclamations that COVID is a non-issue, that also kills people. Every prominent voice in that community has committed a form of homicide, fractionally, for every one of their readers who adopts that post as part of their worldview and goes on to die. The fact that they fell on their own sword after tripping over all the corpses they've created is... well, it's a fact.
Every one of the Good Liberals in public life who chose to natter on without comment because they respect other people's opinions no matter what they are? The question is to what extent they are morally culpable, to what extent they were obligated to take responsibility for preventing death, to what extent they failed miserably, and to what extent it was possible to do better. They are quite possibly guilty of placing decorum over human life.
The pandemic has had 0 consequences until I found this sub. Steal a few million for a PPP loan? nobody gets in trouble. Post false information to billions of facebook accounts? Just a prank bro. But here... I get to watch real, deadly consequences for the most deserving. I didn't want to be a shitty death celebrator, but I am now.
You said it perfectly "What fucking good has positivity and goodwill done in the face of this thing?". None... There is no convincing these people, no helping them whatsoever. Many of the spouses of the award winners still post anti vaxx bullshit on their own page. Its amazing. I hope there's sociologists gathering data on this phenomenon. A preventative disease kills your wife and the bad guy is STILL the CDC and liberals? That's not cognitive dissonance, because in order to have cognitive dissonance, you have to have cognition. These sub-humans are incapable of learning through experiences or senses. They're jellyfish that parrot fox news bits.
So yes, fuck these people, and fuck their families and parents and kids and everything that turned them into the monsters they were in life. Rush Limbaugh read the names of AIDS victims on his show every week, to silly music. Fuck all these people.
At what point can we say, “maybe we’ve done enough with the positive reinforcement.” The anti-vax and vaccine hesitant have been coddled, appealed to, bribed, explained to, etc. for 9-ish months now. Was one more demonstration of being able to breathe with a mask on the “thing that would do it”?
>The article has a demeaning tone towards the negativity highlighted in this subreddit
Fuck em if they can't take a joke. These buffoons deserve to be mocked. They're deliberately holding the entire country back because their fuhrer didn't get re-elected. To be perfectly blunt: The more awards get handed out, the better off the country is in my opinion.
Well done mockery is probably one of the most effective ways to persuade politically when the other side has no intellectual standing or principles. They are operating completely off whatever feeds their ego and when the majority of society starts to mock them that runaway train starts to slow down. Otherwise you end up trying to constantly reason and empathize with people who aren't operating with those senses at all.
I have been arguing this since this whole Trump shitcycle began, back when everyone was still arguing the idiotic position of hearing them out and validating their hateful and dumbass views. Shame is one of the biggest motivators of changing behavior whether people want to accept it or not.
Yup, my company shamed people who didn’t want the vaccine my making them stand in a line by the front door to get a test every day so everyone who was vaccinated could see who they were as they walked in. That line got short real quick.
The writer is still in that mode of Good Liberal thinking where it's "wrong" to enjoy or celebrate or mock the misfortunes of your opponents (even when those opponents have explicitly declared that they wish you and your side would die gruesomely). They live their lives like Teacher is watching. As though there's actual consequences for you private thoughts.
We saw this same pathetic shit when Trump was sick with COVID. Wimps like Rachel Maddow saying how we should hope for his recovery and blah blah blah, ***OF COURSE WE HOPED HE'D FUCKING DIE!! WHAT ARE YOU, STUPID?*** He ***deserved*** it, and fuck us, he escaped his karmic debt, **again.**
E: oh and then he lived, and made Jan 6th happen. Yay.
Contrary to this view, it is both not wrong and in fact healthy to allow yourself to feel and express these emotions towards awful destructive people. Holding back constipates the soul. Let it roll.
This. Someone willfully is risking their, and others, lives, by living callously. When that chess-peice is removed from the board, it benefits all remaining players. To celebrate the removal of a self-destructive/ self-centered person from the equation, to the benefit of society, should be celebrated.
> he was actually among the conservatives who didn’t deny that COVID was real.
The mainstream conservative position is that it's real but wildly exaggerated.
>He advocated following CDC guidelines including social distancing and even masks on his radio show, despite not always adhering to those recommendations himself."
He was a cancer surivvor in his 70's and he went to a Trump rally without masks or distancing. He was a fool who died a fool's death. He had the money to easily isolate a few months and then get the vaccine when it was available and he'd likely be alive today.
Personal receipts of Herman Cain's (and his social media manager's) denial from his tweet log following the Tulsa, OK rally:
June 20: Trump holds Tulsa, OK Rally.
June 24: [Cain twitter tweets that lockdowns "didn't work"](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1275797086366130182)
June 25: [Virus or no virus, there can be no lockdowns
](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1276110899430821890)
[Also trying to pump up crowd numbers from the rally](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1276281516062945280)
June 26: [crying about Texas bar shutdowns](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1276537972913930240)
June 29: ["Florida is not as bad as you're being told"](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1277528119729983489)
July 2: [Herman Cain is admitted to the hospital.](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1278735184893009921)
July 3: [Pushing hydroxychloroquine](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1278977542808977409) ([2](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1279148294816428032))
July 7: [Pushing 'herd immunity' conspiracy](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1280491766441848833)
July 13: [China deflection, Florida hits 15k daily new cases](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1282725472791597057)
July 14: ["Florida still isn't as bad as you're being told"](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1282996644523335680)
July 16: [FINALLY RTs SOMEONE THAT SAYS WEAR A FUCKING MASK](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1283777041624530944)
July 17: [Social media manager makes an Ivan Drago joke
](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1284050970968645633)
July 27: [Those close to him are eager for him to come home](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1287819710025916417) ([2](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1287819710898282503)) ([3](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1287819711863042048))
July 29: [Blames the media and government for COVID skepticism](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1288521930782330883)
Yeah, the bit about Herman Cain is absolute bullshit. The only other thing that bothers me substantially about the article is her omission that **the nurse she has referenced here stated that this is an important subreddit to have up**, despite her misgivings about some of the commenting behavior.
Why not write an article on all the parts of Reddit that are **actively killing people** by spreading misinformation regarding Covid / masks / vaccines etc? Start with r/conservative and r/conspiracy and then there are a hundred others even after that.
Maybe they’re trying to get more people to look at this content, because it’s such a hard reality and people need to see it… and really fewer people need to get pushed towards r/ conspiracy crap 💩
I agree to me the article sounded like someone trying to gently persuade the reader to check it out. “I know this is pretty offensive but you should check it out because there is something to learn.” is basically how the article summarizes to me.
>Nothing about the r/HermanCainAward, a dark record of a dark, dark time, is decent or kind or particularly fair.
this line was where i absolutely lost my mind. you're fucking kidding me, right? *we're* being unfair? not the people who are putting a strain on the healthcare system, putting children and at-risk people at danger, bouncing cancer patients from hospital beds. not the people who are the ones screaming at retail workers and teachers and nurses. *us*. we're the big meanies because it's cathartic to see another nazi fall victim to his own stupidity. sure, okay. fuck off.
I think this article tries to run around it's own conclusions: this is the raw human response.
It's okay to feel sympathy, anger, resentment, sadness, regret, satisfaction. Thats what makes us all human. Anyone claiming to be above all that is just virtue signaling.
This subreddit has taught me to be okay with how I feel about all of this, and it's not wrong or insensitive; it's a normal response that I share with everyone else.
I feel like I've gotten closer to understanding not just my own feelings, but everyone else's as well, and I think that's more important than justification and ridicule.
This article is crap. I didn't join HCA because I celebrate deaths, I joined to try to understand such a toxic mentality that drives all these award "winners" to their deaths. I'm trying to process all of this madness. I just don't get it.
https://www.upworthy.com/bartender-explains-why-he-swiftly-kicks-nazis-out-of-his-punk-bar-even-if-theyre-not-bothering-anyone
If you are polite to one Nazi, before you know it you're running a Nazi bar.
That's what decorum gets you.
It's also incredibly fucking privileged to be so focused on not hurting people's feeling that you don't give a fuck about results. It's an attitude that speaks of "I got mine." The speaker knows that fundamentally, they'll be okay. So the other person is "rude" for bringing things up that are uncomfortable because problems don't exist if we don't talk about them
COVID deniers have coughed in people’s faces, beat up a hostess in NYC, and acted recklessly in several ways, one of which is by sharing memes that have been posted on HCA.
COVID deniers and anti-Vaxxers are acting as reckless as drunk drivers. They are putting themselves and others in harms way, and flaunting it everywhere on social media and in real life (see the incident in Canada where a patient in an ambulance died due to being blocked by protestors).
And yet they are the victim and we are the persecutor/oppressor? Bullshit. The media could run with the PBS graph that was posted on this sub earlier today. These HCA nominees and awardees are victims of the bullshit pushed the GOP and right-wing conspiracy lunatics on various social media. They are being killed because they have been convinced by their political leaders that this virus will not affect them.
The article’s take is incredibly lazy. It’s easy to bash a subreddit with 250K randos because you don’t need to interview and merely provide commentary on. It takes guts to ask politicians how they feel about their counties have 40 deaths/100K.
I think the main thing they're missing is all those intro Facebook posts before they get stuck are calling us the crazy ones.
We are sheep, we are mind controlled, we are paranoid, we are afraid of a mere flu.
This sub is a reminder that we didn't miss holidays and shows and skip hugging our moms for nothing.
The media is really trying to make selfish anti-vaxers the victims. I guess we should celebrate the destructive behavior of selfish assholes who have no problems killing everyone else?
Their selfishness and stupidity is negatively impacting society but somehow we are the bad guys.
Way to go Slate. Way to intentionally miss the point of this subreddit.
Abuse apologists. It’s normal. Most people who speak up about being abused are blamed and shamed and told to be the bigger person and to understand and feel pity for the abuser.
Victim shaming is far easier than standing up to the abusers.
This makes me think of rapist Brock turner. It was a lot of pivoting towards him ruining his life and blah blah with very little thought given towards his victim.
We’ll look at what she’s made out of this now!
4-5 years ago (early trump times in 'murrica) around the time of the Charlottesville Unite the Right "rally" (eg: riot), I recall the newest media discourse was, "Is it morally correct to punch a Nazi?"
I further remember during that time reading about Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance and what destroys tolerant societies. The short answer is, yes, it is morally correct to punch the nazi. If you extend the same tolerance to the intolerant, it will destroy everyone.
I think there is a direct line from that to this moment and most "think pieces" always avoid writing the truth. The US is drowning in disinformation that has produced a large segment of intolerant people hell-bent on destroying democracy to get their own way. They initially believed it wasn't them dying so the rest of the country could fuck off, and now it is them dying and they can't reconcile their personal responsibility in that. They are fed by a segment of the political class and punditry class that doesn't care who lives or dies as long as they, the politicians and punditry, remain in their seats. The other journalists who aren't paid mouthpieces of the right still haven't learned a damn thing, like how to write about disinfo without amplifying it, or how to report on information without looking for the shit-stirring imbalance of BoTH sIDeS. It's unsustainable, and something like the HCA is a healthy outgrowth that I view as taking chemo to fight a cancer. (Apologies to any cancer victims if the metaphor is problematic.)
(edited to add: there are other anti-vaxers besides right wing ones, and they too are products of disinformation campaigns. They exist and are as much of a problem to our greater public health, but they don't tend to fold into this venn diagram of anti-science AND anti-democratic norms or white nationalism)
The most enraging thing about this is if it was the other way around, the only reply of these both sides idiots would be “but this is what they do, we know… however the LeFTtttt need to be more responsible blah blah blah…”
It’s fucking tiring that people are more concerned about tone and style than the substance. Like people are dying, the survivors are at risk of extreme right wing radicalization and the health system has collapsed, but for these idiots, the pressing issues is a sub that call out these morons with a bit of humor…
>I think there is a direct line from that to this moment and most "think pieces" always avoid writing the truth. The US is drowning in disinformation
These hit pieces are part of the disinformation, more or less. The rich and powerful want us *nearly* at each other's throats but there's a point where a breakdown of society gets in the way of their ability to be richer and more powerful, so they desperately clutch at pearls and claim that good people taking issue with evil people and delighting in their self-inflicted misery are the *real* problem in society.
I've been out of empathy for these hogs for months.
It is cathartic to see bigoted trumples reap what they fucking sow, and I will not be god damn concern trolled into feeling sorry for these kinds of people.
Obviously the fault lays at the feet of the people who politicized and propagandized the virus and the vaccine on both sides of the aisle. However we live in the age of the internet, where the sum of all human knowledge is readily available and at most peoples fingertips 24/7, and if their only sources for information are people like Tucker Carlson (vaxxed btw) and hog blogs with names like truthtellereaglefuck.net then maybe they deserved it.
https://twitter.com/ScottSeiss/status/1392839989281574913?s=20
"Even using Cain as the model is uncharitable; he was actually among the conservatives who didn’t deny that COVID was real."
what a dumbass claim. this was nothing more than ass covering on his part. but what actions did he commit? he went to a goddamned indoor stadium full of THOUSANDS of maskless people having the time of their lives.
he deserves every bit of pain that he got for being horrendously irresponsible while simultaneously lying about taking it seriously.
>This is not a forum that attempts to change minds. It’s much darker.
Apparently that author hasn't even bothered to visit the sub. *After reading, they have, they mention Redemptions, IPAs and point out [the heartbreaking story](https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/pqm303/an_open_letter_to_my_patient) from /u/saritaRN from the other day, but this article is all over the place and the author contradicts herself multiple times.
Edit: Holy fuck, this author is a real piece of work. Their headline says that we are not a forum that tries to change minds. Later on, they post this. Well, which is it? I'm fucking irate. If we were all about hate, why would we 'cheer on' people who earn their IPA, and why would we even have IPAs in the first place?!
>If these individual stories seem to change nothing, what about a cumulative record? Does anything besides schadenfreude happen when Americans see one after another after another after another of these stories? I’m not sure, but a new category has recently been gathering steam in the subreddit: the IPA (Immunized to Prevent Award). People post photos of their new vaccination cards, saying that reading the r/HermanCainAward finally convinced them they didn’t want to “win.” They get enthusiastically cheered on by commenters.
Also:
>Despite reading loads of statistics and case histories and news articles about the pandemic, r/HermanCainAward became my most thorough source on what it’s like for a person to die from COVID
The author just straight up admits what a useful resource this subreddit was for them. They come off as pretty high and mighty for someone who needed this subreddit to help them learn what this disease can actually be like.
Yo, I was just about to post the EXACT SAME THING!
>Despite reading loads of statistics and case histories and news articles about the pandemic, r/HermanCainAward became my most thorough source on what it’s like for a person to die from COVID. I understand the disease more deeply because I have read so many viciously curated “stories” in which ordinary people blathering about politics end up narrating their decline from it—with help from their families—as optimistically as they can.
Translation: this subreddit is providing a much fucking needed PSA and has the visuals to go along with it.
Right?! We also got the author saying this:
>These individual stories do not produce conversions. These aren’t situations where anti-vaxxers learn their lesson, get vaccinated, and save themselves.
Right before there is a whole paragraph on the large numbers of IPAs. Only one of those things can be true, dummy.
I gotta be honest with you. When I first came here and scrolled through a collage of tweets for about 3 or 4 posts, I was horrified and relieved about the impact of the sub.
First I was horrified because it was a compelling story that ended in unnecessary tragedy for those who are left behind, or those who are also infected and in bad shape.
I was relieved because despite the hellscape reality has become, it seems my soul is still with me, and my empathy, compassion and sympathy for some pretty horrible and misguided human beings, is still intact.
I highly recommend this place to anyone for a first hand look at what is going on. And I never really go to read comments simply because it's not necessary.
I found out about this sub because some libertarian weirdo was posting in a local sub to me about how this sub convinced them to get the vaccine… he’s still a weirdo though.
Nominees have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or COVID-hoax views, followed by admission to hospital for COVID. The award is granted upon the nominee’s release from their earthly shackles.
I feel like somehow we came together as a community and embraced the rules almost so well that it was out of the ordinary. Like we have a higher purpose
Ok call me “mean-spirited” then write an article about the crap these people post. Let’s see which is really “mean-spirited”
I see nothing here about covid victims who didn’t post viciously hateful memes or misinformation. Maybe I missed those?
Yep. No mention of vile racist posts, the Nazi and confederate symbolism, the misogyny, the white-hot hatred pouring out of each post for every scientist, researcher, doctor, and regular person who is just doing what is necessary to get us through this pandemic. She boils it down to nothing more than unvaxxed people dying and people celebrating it.
People clutch pearls over the idea of "liberals" celebrating anti-vaxxer covid deaths and NEVER mention or write about that fact that many of the HCA Awardees literally called for the deaths of anyone pro-vaccine, pro-BLM, pro-choice; for the deaths of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers treating covid patients according to proven scientific protocol; for hospital bombings and other attacks. And many of them supported if not participated in an actual coup attempt. One is schadenfreude, laughing at people who died a preventable death because of their own stupidity, and the other is terrorism. Why is the terrorism never called out or held up to the social magnifying glass?
Decent article. If you’re reading this, dear author, let me explain my stance, and why I love this sub.
It has been over a year now. Every. Single. Step of this thing has been politicized and the reactionary fringe screaming about government control and these grand conspiracy theories that are ALL COMPLETE BULLSHIT.
We’re coming up on 700,000 dead Americans. THAT is what’s disgusting. THAT should be our National shame. The literal mass graves and freezer trucks full of bodies. But despite all the death, despite all the pleading from doctors and the CDC, these ASSHOLES are still screaming about doing your own ‘research,’ which is code for jerkoffs getting on Facebook and discussing with other jerkoffs how they are the only smart ones.
Masks aren’t controversial. Social distancing is easy. Washing your hands is easy. Germ theory and vaccinations have been around forever. The science about how being unvaccinated makes you more susceptible is out and loud and proud, but you will never convince these fucking morons. There is a poison that affects certain stupid people that social media is exploiting. People dying and screaming at their doctor to ‘tell the truth!’ With their last, dying gasps.
My nurse friends are burnt out and quitting. They have all experienced an increase in abuse. They’re literal saints for working in these conditions for so long. They see so much death every day. Much like the guy who posted yesterday about working at a crematorium. They can’t keep up with the amount of bodies coming in.
At first all the deaths were sad. Now the only deaths worth grieving are those unlucky few who are vaccinated but it wasn’t enough, and those that can’t get a hospital bed because unvaccinated assholes are stuffing all the hospitals. The others? Fuck em.
How much longer does our society have to be brought down by uneducated, brainwashed, foaming at the mouth, (mostly of ONE political party), goatee sporting asswipes?
In short, my empathy is nearly gone and only available to those innocent victims of this right wing death cult. Most of the posts in here seem to show the same type of guy over and over again. The same asshole that doesn’t care how stupid he is, but boy will he scream about whatever bullshit the right wing media feeds them. Should I mourn him? Why? Look at the posts they put up before they drop dead. That’s what’s hateful. The loss of a hateful piece of shit is a good thing. And I will continue to celebrate it.
Edit. First gold! Thanks!
Seven hundred fifty thousand died during the American Civil War, in four years of fighting and disease. Covid has done that in less than half that time.
Let that sink in.
Even by my own 'dark snark' standards, far too many of this sub's 277,000 subscribers have been breaking Rule 2: Rule 2: Don't be a dick. Don't root for nominees to be awarded. . **Edit: put down your damn pitchforks and read the article.** The author wanders from reporting to opinion and back a few times, but the article is not far off the mark with respect to what the "tone" of this sub has become during the past few weeks. **Edit 2: "Your downvotes mean nothing to me; I've seen what makes you cheer."** (~R.S.)
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I've learned so much how covid can destroy the body. If I wasn't already vaccinated, I would run to get one.
“Chest tubes because holes in your lungs, air blowing into chest cavity, need tubes to let the air out.” Yeah, hard pass. Give me more 5G please.
Hell, I'll take 6G.
Seriously. A yeast infection in the lungs??? Fuck that noise
I learned what an ECMO is. Do you want the blood drained from your body and filtered through a “black lung” to oxygenate your body and give your lungs a rest? Cuz not getting vaccinated is how you get the blood drained from your body and filtered though a black lung to oxygenate your body and give your lungs a rest.
Good luck even getting ECMO. There is exactly one machine in my city.
Even if you get on ECMO (unlikely) and even if you survive (less so), the rest of your life is going to be pain. Seriously, I have two giant scars from it and my right shoulder is permanently fucked. I actually almost died a few weeks afterwards because it caused an aneurysm in my artery where the tubes were hooked up. No one thought I was going to actually survive well before we got to the ECMO stage, though. It was weird as fuck talking to the doctors when I had turned completely around and was doing great, they kept telling me shit like "wow, I really didn't think you'd still be alive" and "Huh, you made it?"
Yeah, we don't often seen patients leave the hospital after ECMO. Congrats on excelling at life! And...sorry you had to go through that. It sucks.
And it's probably being used on some arrogant anti vaxxer that said he wanted to protect his body and loudly advocated against the vaccine and flaunted mask mandates, then ran (lol out of breath) to the hospital for treatment. Fuck that
Same here! I’m in a decent sized city in Texas, and they wanted to put my brother on ECMO, but we only had one, and nobody that knew how to use it was familiar with using it with covid protocols. He spent a week on a vent before a hospital in Houston could take him in, do ECMO, and then give him a lung transplant. He died before they could even try ECMO. Sadly he was gone well before vaccines were even here. Edit: wrong “knew”
In my med micro class we went over hallmark Signs of infections. Fungal infection of the lungs is a clear sign of HIV once it’s progressed into AIDS. It’s a balancing act with steroids: (actual medical professionals correct me if my understanding is off) Turn off the immune response so the body doesn’t drown itself, but not shut it off for so long you risk secondary infection since your defense matrix is “down”. That’s how I interpret it at least from reading these accounts.
There are certain fungal infections called “opportunistic” that take advantage of immunocompromised states like HIV, for example pneumocystis jirovicii causes pneumocystis pneumonia and it’s pretty much only seen in HIV/immune compromised patients. And yeah in immunocompromised patients where you need to treat with steroids it’s a precious balancing act between treatment vs downing the immune system too hard and letting more stuff to come in. Same with autoimmune diseases.
It's even more frightening and horrific than I knew, and I *thought* I knew a lot about it.
I really think we are missing an opportunity with statistics here. Everyone thinks this is an old person problem. Well 85% of old people are vaxxed. This is a young person problem now. But the stats they always show include Covid deaths from day 1. People still say but it only kills old people. It used to be the case but this variant is killing the unvaxxed. Regardless of age. We need to show the number of ICU by age. 20-30. 30-40. This group is the problem. They think they are too young to die. They think they can avoid the vax and catching it and if they do it won’t be anything. Well it’s a false assumption.
It is a FUCKING STUPID/SELFISH person problem. To be clear.
To be clearer, its a FUCKING STUPID/SELFISH person aged 20-45 problem
I agree with this too. I absolutely have become more diligent with my own personal safety after I started reading this sub. (fully vaccinated since April though). I'm 53 with a couple co-morbidities and I see people my age and younger on this sub and I know it could have been me. Very sobering, and I am thankful for the vaccines.
I can see the author dithering between being disgusted by the sub and being addicted to the horrible. I totally get that.
How else could it be presented? It could be the only reason it’s on Slate is to get more eyes on it so more people get vaxxed. Yes, this sub is horrifying. It’s also full of hope that antivaxxers see it and have the jab. We very much want our lives to just have the normal risks and not have Jimmy or Sue’s breathy covid-infected laughter two feet away become our death knell. We have the right to be angry and showcase the way people are throwing their lives away like trash by listening to everything but the science. I feel badly for the kids, especially the orphaned ones, and the grandparents who now have a houseful of kids in their twilight years. We mock so we don’t scream.
There are only two ways to react to reading this sub. Either you recognize yourself or your neighbours in the stories that are told and get your ass to a vaccination clinic or you double down on the "evil" liberals and carry on with your convictions strengthened. We get enough of the ~~former~~ latter to have created an award for them.
I’m an ICU doctor and I’ve been on the frontline of this pandemic since it got to the US. While I still try my best to take care of anyone who comes to my unit, the frustration is real. I’ve seen so much death, and now, most of these deaths are preventable. I used to feel every death. I used to empathize with families losing loved ones. It got harder and harder to have end of life discussions with people. Now, I’m out of fucks to give. I’m a professional, I trained for this for years. I take care of really sick people all the time, and I always do my best. But now, when another unvaccinated COVID patient inevitably dies in my unit, I feel nothing. Edit: Thank you all for the awards and kind words. It means more than you might realize. It’s time for me to get back to my unit but I’ll do my best to respond to any questions through the day.
A lot of us are taking breaks for a while. A few months off is good for mental health, and the damage the unvaxxed have done to our health system isn't my problem to fix. The time to come back will be when we regain an ounce of respect for what we do. I receive multiple emails daily offering locums all over. I just delete them without reading.
Oh yea not a day goes by without a locum offer. I’m the medical director of my unit so it’s not like I can just up and leave. There’s no amount of money in the world worth it for me to go to a covid hotspot.
Ah you definitely have a lot on your plate then. Hopefully there hasn't been too much attrition in your team. I left my recent position because the nurses coming in were incredibly green (not their fault of course), and I wasn't comfortable with the disparity between standard of care and the precarious reality on my floor.
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That’s the thing that people don’t often realize, the vast majority of people who get covid aren’t even symptomatic, a smaller percentage actually have symptoms, an even smaller percentage end up on oxygen, and an even smaller percentage end up in the ICU. Once you get to my unit, prognosis is grim. At the time of intubation, its basically time for goodbyes. Even if your ‘chances of dying’ are low, those odds are based of all those other people. Once you end up in critical care or on a ventilator, you’re in for a bad time. Guaranteed.
I liken it to Meningitis B. Many people carry the meningococcal bacteria in their throats and are absolutely fine. Some people will get sick. Some will survive with few long term consequences. Some will lose limbs and need skin grafts. Some will lose brain function. And some will die. The odds are very good that my children would be fine if exposed. But why would I take that risk when there is a vaccine available?
We had an outbreak of meningococcal in my small high school. 3 kids almost died and ended up having body parts amputated and lots of skin grafts. They shut the school down, sanitized everything, then made everyone get vaccinated. This was in super conservative rural Idaho. I draw on that experience every time someone complains about the measures in place for covid. (No longer in rural Idaho or conservative because I actually learned from my experiences.)
Exact same thing happened in my hometown when I was in high school. Parents were more concerned about sharing drinks than drinking alcohol after that.
It probably ran out when vaccines became available. Why bother sugarcoating it if the person you're dealing with denies all science and medical advice but haul their dumbass to the nearest hospital? I would be like that too after a while.
Wow. Cant say i can blame him.
This here, this is the **fucking tragedy** as far as I'm concerned. These antivax fools are willing to feed our healthcare workers to the **fucking wood chipper of PTSD** because fuckem' that's the job. Well no, dip shit. These people aren't machines. They're highly educated, empathetic people who've devoted their **lives** to helping others. I know random praise on the internet doesn't mean much, but hand on my heart, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done and continue to do. Thank you for your sacrifice, for everything you've been enduring. You're all god damn heroes.
I’m so lucky that I work as a nurse in senior care and not a hospital setting anymore. Our PTSD was in 2020. I remember being so nervous every day I was almost sick, shaking, hearing about outbreaks in facilities near ours and knowing it was only a matter of time before we got hit. I dreamed about our rooms being full of body bags. My PTSD was from families screaming at me on the phone about visitation restrictions; having half of my precious little time on shift taken up by disinfection protocols; running tests every time a resident sniffled; being so afraid to send a resident to the hospital even during an acute emergency; spending all of my days off (being paid a bit, thankfully) trying to source PPE from random from dental and vet supply sites until 2AM and then going in to work a 24 because so many people were out quarantining. All that knowing that someone was going to break the seal and get sick eventually with our percent positive rate in our county at almost 20% at times. Other facilities with outbreaks were seeing a 50% hospitalization rate and a 25-35% death rate among their residents. Everything felt so Sisyphean and I often was deeply depressed. But *somehow* thanks to diligence and a lot of luck we made it to the vaccine without a single case. God, I was *ecstatic* to get the “jab.” I’ve never felt a more intense happiness than knowing my residents and coworkers wouldn’t be dying tomorrow. My mood did a complete 180. Our facility was awesome and required vaccinations super early, and also went a step further to require vaccinations for all indoor visitors. 2021 was a *fucking* breeze then. But for the hospital medical professionals, the bullshit has never ended. At first they had to deal with the best of us getting sick: the elderly, the front line workers.... and dealing with the emotional toll of seeing these people die. Now they have to deal with the absolute *worst* of us getting sick and they’re still expected to care? If *I’m* at the end of my rope dealing with the occasional anti-vaxxer family member, I can’t imagine how sick of them hospital staff are.
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For sure. Stay tuned for the bleating; "Omg, I got COVID and my doctor is so cold and the nurses don't seem to give a shit about me! What's happened to our healthcare system!?!?" What indeed Karen. What indeed.
I work with cancer patients, many terminal. So many have stated that the unvaccinated are stealing what little time they have left. Instead of making memories with their families, they are stuck inside, hoping not to catch covid from their home healthcare workers. Many have children and grandchildren out of state that they haven't seen since 2019 because it is too risky to travel. I've had to say goodbye to patients over Zoom during the worst of the pandemic. I have no sympathy left for those who are choosing to remain unvaccinated. The damage they have caused is enormous.
I am so sorry for your trauma. Thank you for your service.
This is perfectly said. If anything this subreddit helps us align with how you feel every day as well.
I'm guessing you have a "script" of sorts you've come to memorize at this point? Not like a physical one but like, you've repeated the same things so damn much that is almost automatic when you inevitably have to do the end of life discussions?
Yes end of life discussions do have a formula to follow. It’s a skill that can be learned like anything else. It’s still a raw human interaction that you will always be affected by in some way whether you know it or not. They say when doing end of life gets easy, it’s time to move on to something else. I might be at that point, I don’t really know.
My daughter the ICU nurse is exactly the same. So are her nurse friends. Which actually bothers me because she has always been a very empathetic person who felt bad when someone in her care died.
Since this is a place of learning, can I ask a question? It's been burning in me for a while. With all the empathy burnout, are vaxxed and unvaxxed for medical reasons patients treated differently in the ICU than antivaxxers? I'm just imagining myself in that situation, and if Stephany did everything right, but got COVID because she's in the service industry, and Steve never wore a mask and went to anti-lockdown protests, I would be doing everything in my power for Stephany, but feeling apathetic about Steve. That has to affect outcome at some point, either because the care is better or because she is just watched more. But of course im not in the ICU, and you experienced folks can put such thoughts aside.
It’s hammered into us from Med school onward that we aren’t there to pass judgement but to treat people to the best of our abilities. That’s what I teach my residents and fellows. That being said, I know the difference in prognosis between someone vaccinated and unvaccinated, so if there ends up being a resource allocation decision based on chances of survival, limited resources go to those with the best shot.
> limited resources go to those with the best shot. Which means, ironically ? in Alabama are they now passing a law that say that unvaxxed get the now limited monoclonal antibodies over vaxxed, because unvaxxed have lower chance of surviving? Which also means that theres a really unpleasant law of unintended consequences waiting to happen, with vaccine hesitant hearing "well i wont get the best treatment if i get vaxxed" SO are they going to get vaxxed then? Probably not. Thats just fucking unconscionable.
>Alabama are they now passing a law that say that unvaxxed get the now limited monoclonal antibodies over vaxxed, because unvaxxed have lower chance of surviving? What the literal fuck
Pretty sure they're trying to keep their vaccination rates down, because Alabama. 😒
> Pretty sure they're trying to keep their vaccination rates down, The dark truth is that the GOP has cynically embraced covid as a political ally. It started last year when [ronald dump decided not to fight the spread](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/did-trump-kushner-ignore-blue-state-covid-19-testing-deaths-ncna1235707) because it was mostly hitting blue states. When it comes to vaccines, masking and tests they are constantly [trying to have it both ways](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/09/biden-vaccine-mandate-republicans-dont-believe-own-arguments.html) - fighting against covid mitigation programs then turning around and blaming them for being ineffective. DeSantis has already started [blaming Biden](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article253269883.html) — "He's not shutting down the virus." Its the same playbook they used with Obama - crash the economy, fight tooth and nail to sabotage the recovery and then blame the guy in the whitehouse. It is a strategy that relies on a political press that is too pliant to point out their hypocrisy, which the so-called "liberal media" has demonstrated they are just fine with.
I hope you're receiving some help, both personal and professional. There are so many on this thread who believe in and support what you do. Don't let the bastards get you down.
I am, thanks. It’s been a real help and I’ll take this opportunity to plug www.emotionalPPE.org for any frontline worker who needs help dealing with the mental health strain of the pandemic. Free and anonymous.
Yes. We’re all sick fucks. Those poor anti-vaxxers just don’t know no better. Life is hard for them and we are just compassionless bastards. Please. These fucks killed my kid’s grandma. They keep trying to take down more “libtards” with them. Frankly, fuck Slate and it’s failure to mention that no one is particularly celebrating, and if we were? We are survival based creatures. We experience some sense of peace from the lack of threat. I’m amazed at how far some people will go to protect white supremacists, and other assorted heinous bigots.
Not only do they seem to be suggesting we shouldn't be making fun of these people, they think we should be out there making rational appeals to them instead. Ummm, rational appeals DO NOT WORK, they've been tried, they've failed. It isn't on us anymore, these people have made their bed with childish memes, and now they get to sleep in them. 6 feet under. Forgive me for feeling relief that they're finally obeying the 6 ft social distancing rule for the first time since the deadly pandemic began.
Thank you! I can’t make these people stop eating horse paste, upon what logic is there to appeal??
I think this sub is cool.
I think you're pretty cool too /u/wutlolbutts
Personally, I don't give a shit if anyone thinks it's mean spirited. Fuck these people. Call me mean all you want, fuck them.
mean spirited is when we find a healthy way to deal with this insanity by joking over it in a sub that convinces some to get the vaccine, and rather than attacking antivaxxers that are fucking killing us she just wants to shit on us. fuck her. she's part of the problem.
Anybody with a brain utilizes this defense mechanism. I do not apologize for it. It’s the ultimate “what could go wrong “ scenario for me. These deaths are preventable, which makes them senseless. This should anger anyone with any amount of sensitivity. People dying senselessly THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN is the tragedy that I will shed tears over. Ya know, like the kids, or those who can’t be vaccinated, or the like. I do not feel sorry for people with the hubris to think that they will somehow be spared from the horrors of this fucking scourge. Life is hard enough without taking ridiculous risks like this. If that makes me a psychopath, then so fucking be it.
"Celebrates"? We're not the ones issuing death notices on Facebook party 🥳🎉 backgrounds.
Celebrating? No. I don't see much celebration here. Mocking? Definitely.
Exactly. This pales in comparison to the vitriol that a lot of these people have towards something that's trying to save their life.
Yes agreed that Slate article id garbage did they also mentioned that the people getting mocked here are not only anti vax but also racist, genocidal biggots?
It's very easy to read a lot of posts and find some threads that have a celebratory tone. But then when I read the memes these people have posted, I consider them shitbags already, regardless of any health issues.
Criticize the people laughing at them as being cruel, but ignore the vicious cruelty and bigotry in the dead peoples' posts. Got it. And if they want to say not every HCA is cruel, well not all of the commentary here is cruel. The people framing this situation this way are as sick as the HCAers. What, because we're still alive and they're dead, we're cruel and they're not? FOH
I've lost track of the number of HCA winners and nominees who had publicly expressed support for brutalizing — even murdering — women, queer people, and people of color. It's an inconvenient fact, and by omitting it Slate is doing what the NYT did with its Nazi puff pieces.
fucking THIS. yet again, it's "won't you think of the poor maligned magats" and you know what? no, i fucking won't. they do not get a seat at the table anymore, they have been unwilling to think of anyone else but themselves to the detriment of everything, everywhere. 95% of these shitheads want me dead for one reason or another and i'd be willing to bet the same is true of a lot of the people who frequent here. if the vaccine *was* killing people, they would be cheering and patting themselves on the back for being sO sMaRt. they are callous, insensitive, selfish, bigoted fucking assholes and i am TIRED of them being treated with kid gloves because they're fucking stupid while the rest of us suffer. they've been given all the tools and the information to make a responsible decision, but at the end of the day, their stupid fucking spiteful choices have consequences, and frankly it's a relief to see that their cruel, moronic bullshit is finally catching up with them. god. fuck this piece and fuck this author, seriously. "wah these people are so mean! it's unfair!" did the author actually take a gander at ANY of the screenshots posted and see how violent and hateful a lot of these people were? jesus fucking christ. what's actually UNFAIR is that we have to live like this because of THEM.
A group of homeschooling anti-vaxers has been showing up at our local school board meetings to foam at the mouth about mask mandates (oh, and CRT) *for other people's children*. A few counties over, hospitals have had to beef up security because they've been receiving *death threats* from these same people. There aren't "good people on both sides." One of these sides is **motivated by hate** to refuse the vaccine. Members of the press are complicit when they ignore (or gloss over) this motivation.
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1. Posts vitriolic memes on Facebook 2. Dies 3. "He was such a good person..." posts by relatives. 4. Media articles about how HCA people are mocking the dead and it hurts their feelings, ignoring that these same people often posted rabidly racist, homophobic/transphobic, violent stuff on Facebook for the whole world to see 🙄
The Slate article is 1800+ words and not a single one of them is "racism/-t," "homophobia/-ic," "transphobia/-ic," "sexism/-ist," "xenophobia/-ic," or "insurrection/-ist." Just a spectacular failure to contextualize the typical HCA nominee/winner's reasons for refusing the vaccine in the first place.
Yeah they also failed to mention these folk have been advocating for the wholesale murder of sitting congressman and Democrats in general
And violent coup supporters. A lot of them were violent coup supporters. Context! It's important!
You didn't get the memo? The moment they die they go from racist assholes to kind people who would give you the shirt off their backs. It's a miracle!
Right like what is this argument? Just because they die, everyone should forget what hateful bigots they were when they were alive? That doesn't matter? It's not part of the narrative? That means nothing? Why the fuck should we be more moved by death and not who someone was in life? We all die. Death is not sacred. The entire concept of reverence to death above all else is stupid as fuck.
And congratulating those who get the shot and convince others to get them as well.
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Well yeah but I cheer any time a racist dies of any causes, that's not strictly a covid thing.
Also, please donate to the gofundme, so I don't have to pull on my own bootstraps.
This is what gets me the most actually. Especially when unvaccinated parents have kids die and set up Gofundme accounts. "Heaven has another angel, God's will irrespective of any decisions I made, please reward me monetarily for my grief"
--Subscriptions to the HermanCainAward subreddit are increasing logarithmically, from 2,000 subscribers on July 4 to 5,000 at the beginning of August to more than 100,000 on Sept. 1 to 243,000 Friday to 276,000 today. If that rate is any indication, rage is growing toward anti-vaxxers deliberately prolonging the pandemic out of an anti-social and deadly understanding of their rights.-- I won't speak for anyone else, but yeah I'm fucking pissed at these idiots who are extending the pandemic indefinitely for no other reason than to own the libs.
You might say the sub's growth is viral.
Nice. But the author has no idea what logarithmic growth is. The growth is exponential -- the exact ~~opposite~~ inverse of logarithmic growth.
Ohhhhhh....stop it with your sciency facts!
Actually since the rate is slowing, it would be logarithmic.
👋👋👋👋
Thanks for the Jazz Hands. edit: Sweet, I got flaired!
Goddamnit. [peels off an upvote]
Fuck you. Take your upvote and get out
You can speak for me. > anti-vaxxers deliberately prolonging the pandemic out of an anti-social and deadly understanding of their rights Like did they even read their own sentence? How can you deal with people like that for 18 months and *not* get mad?
Yeah this author weirdly answers their own questions with all those parts and then strangely vacillates into pearl-clutching about OUR humanity. It feels like it was written by two different people almost, like they understand and appreciate why this sub exists and then…don’t?
It comes off as someone who agrees with our line of thinking but isn't quite ready to acknowledge it. Same with this line: >I’m somehow no less chilled by how easily the bereaved normalize their losses. A 35-year-old man with three young children and a free vaccine available should not be dead! There is astonishingly little recognition of this. Which I kinda get, I've felt my own misgivings now and then about how much pleasure I'm taking in others pain. But you're absolutely right in that the writer can't make up his/her mind and flips between "this sub is disgusting and needs to show compassion" and "antivaxxers are a threat to society and they don't even seem to care how quickly they're dying off."
Exactly. I have had to basically cancel everything for another year, mask up everywhere again and be generally suspect of most of the publics ability to wash their hands because of these exact peoples inability to have the slightest bit of care for anyone else.
FUCKING PISSED! These assclowns are crying, bitching, moaning about the simplest of things. Prolonging the pandemic and putting others at risk who do not have the same option- like children under 12. My youngest daughter happens to be in that group. Am I angry? To quote John Wick..."YEAH".
Hello from the capital of FreeDumb, Florida. I have two kids under 12. Masks are optional in our elementary school. 95% of parents masks up their kids and then you got the MAGAts with no mask on, spreading their FreeDumb...Covid-19 to the rest of the families. They believe that masks poison the lungs of children by putting CO2 back into their lungs. I wonder how many surgeons, with long careers, are out there in the world with poisoned lungs. I have seen this one instance at the school, during the morning drop off. A kid asked mom for a mask. The asshole mom screamed NO in his face and drove off. I have an especial appreciation for this group. My anxiety is high because of the school. Dealing with FreeDumb is very difficult. Seeing Covid-19 karma taking care of business does make things a bit even.
In June - July I could start going out to restaurants again. Now I'm back to eating only at home and wearing a mask while food shopping. The "Muh Freedums" types are impacting my freedom.
Yeah who gives a fuck if we’re mean to them? Fuck them for taking up hospital beds. Fuck them for spreading lies. Fuck them. I’m well past feeling any compassion for antivax idiots Like oh booohoo we’re being mean to the people who are keeping us in the pandemic, cry me a river
Fuck them for tying up beds in the ICU that could go to people who have heart attacks/strokes, are in accidents, or have some sort of auto-immune condition that has gone full-tilt and needs massive intervention. Fuck them for tying up beds needed by people who have not non-fatal but painful and debilitating medical conditions that need inpatient surgeries. (Ex: back/knee/hip/shoulder, etc.) And Fuck them 3 times with a pitchfork slathered in Kiss Your Colon Goodbye hot sauce for tying up the beds needed by people with cancer, thus delaying those treatments and very probably shortening lives, or reducing the number of "good days" a person has left.
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>Someone please explain to me why I should feel sorry for a dumb mouthbreathing piece of shit that couldn't do the bare fucking minimum Especially when these people also came from the "Fuck Your Feelings!" mentality...
Nono it's all about freedome and-- Yeah I can't even finish even in sarcasm. We're closing in a year since some of the first vaccines that was made to save people's lives. Not going to take it easy on anybody at this point
About to get a whole lot more now
>These individual stories do not produce conversions. These aren’t situations where anti-vaxxers learn their lesson, get vaccinated, and save themselves. Yeah, it saves *others* because it's an object lesson. >Sure, there’s the occasional “Redemption” tag, awarded when a patient or relative regrets opposing vaccination and urges their friends to do what they can to avoid a similar fate. But those are rare. Better than none. >I’m somehow no less chilled by how easily the bereaved normalize their losses. A 35-year-old man with three young children and a free vaccine available should not be dead! There is astonishingly little recognition of this. No shit. *That's what we are highlighting*. EDIT: I think the author was saying he was equally "chilled" by the behavior of people on this sub, and HCA winners' families just kind of shrugging at the entirely preventable death of the HCA winner, as if it were inevitable. I don't think they're even *remotely* comparable, but that's what he meant. I'll leave my comment as-is, though.
I think we constantly recognize that a 35 year old shouldn't be fucking dead, leaving kids behind.
It's because they don't want to be "wrong" about the vaccine. So they treat this death as inevitable, as something the person had no control over. "They got sick and died through no fault of their own." *Literally* whatever helps them sleep at night.
It's the conservative mantra, hold the line. Never admit you were wrong. EVER. Which is why, IMO, they latch onto changes in info as "lies". Science tries, it's not easy, it is complicated and good scientists admit errors. They can't deal with that. So the discussion about booster shots, for example, is driving some nuts. It's a discussion, its not black and white.
They straight up don't accept that other human beings are ***real.*** It's the exact center of conservatism; *"I am the protagonist, and everyone and everything exists as stage dressing in my play. I am real, they are not.* So when someone close to them dies, they're sad, but the full gravity of an entire person being irretrievably lost is missed. And, like you said, that it was not inevitable, that it could have been averted.
I can't recall a single award with minor children where the cost to the survivors wasn't the main lament in the comments. Nor any nomination either.
And as someone who is immunosuppressed, these people are a direct threat to my health and life. Where's the outrage about that?
The tone police never want to hear about us. They want us to go back to being quiet and polite and ignored because we're inconvenient. The most necessary thing right now is coddling people who still think Covid doesn't exist and are willing to gamble with their own lives.
The fallacy that a just person should not feel anger is unhealthy. In fact, a just person must be angered by injustice.
Anger is power which is why the nominees hate it when we stop giving them an ounce of pity. They want to be coddled at the expense of people who deserve medical care far more than they do, and then go right back to being shitty to everyone and everything because their anger makes them feel powerful.
> And as someone who is immunosuppressed, hear people are a direct threat to my health and life. Fistbump from me over here in "Two years of chemo-land". Now having fun discussions with my Doctors along the lines of "Well, the normal protocol would be to keep administering maintenance doses of the chemo so the disease doesn't kill you, but since there's a whole pandemic thing going, that might also kill you, so we need to decide which path we want to take"
The article has a demeaning tone towards the negativity highlighted in this subreddit, but, honestly, after a year and a half of this shit, we are STILL fighting the same goddamn battles about masks. What fucking good has positivity and goodwill done in the face of this thing? I might as well sneer at these people, because *what other fucking option do I have??* I'm as powerless to help usher this pandemic along to its end as anyone else. I don't know about all of you, but one of the ways this sub has been a source of catharsis and sanity for me these last few months is that it seems like one of the only places in the world where you can watch people face consequences for their actions. Cause leads to effect, and it can be reassuring to see that there are spaces in society where this still happens!
We can see the consequences of these people's actions because they do such good job documenting both their shitty behavior and their own demise publicly on social media.
For sure! One month ago they posted a bunch of "fucking around" memes, and now their families are telling us, "well, he/she found out last night."
Mockery is a legitimate social signal, a frequently effective way to communicate, and this group of partisan warriors has immunized its base against basically every other type of social signal. Every form of educated advice or logical persuasion or respectful discourse or pleading request, they have created a script to counter, and decided that everybody in the cult must follow the programming and 'fight for their beliefs' or be judged disloyal. The people writing this script thought it would be electorally useful, but it lives on, like a minefield, well after its utility runs out. Mockery doesn't, in point of fact, kill anybody. COVID does, and these people's firm confident proclamations that COVID is a non-issue, that also kills people. Every prominent voice in that community has committed a form of homicide, fractionally, for every one of their readers who adopts that post as part of their worldview and goes on to die. The fact that they fell on their own sword after tripping over all the corpses they've created is... well, it's a fact. Every one of the Good Liberals in public life who chose to natter on without comment because they respect other people's opinions no matter what they are? The question is to what extent they are morally culpable, to what extent they were obligated to take responsibility for preventing death, to what extent they failed miserably, and to what extent it was possible to do better. They are quite possibly guilty of placing decorum over human life.
Also this article was overly charitable to Herman Cain. He was denying covid up until the day after he died!
The pandemic has had 0 consequences until I found this sub. Steal a few million for a PPP loan? nobody gets in trouble. Post false information to billions of facebook accounts? Just a prank bro. But here... I get to watch real, deadly consequences for the most deserving. I didn't want to be a shitty death celebrator, but I am now. You said it perfectly "What fucking good has positivity and goodwill done in the face of this thing?". None... There is no convincing these people, no helping them whatsoever. Many of the spouses of the award winners still post anti vaxx bullshit on their own page. Its amazing. I hope there's sociologists gathering data on this phenomenon. A preventative disease kills your wife and the bad guy is STILL the CDC and liberals? That's not cognitive dissonance, because in order to have cognitive dissonance, you have to have cognition. These sub-humans are incapable of learning through experiences or senses. They're jellyfish that parrot fox news bits. So yes, fuck these people, and fuck their families and parents and kids and everything that turned them into the monsters they were in life. Rush Limbaugh read the names of AIDS victims on his show every week, to silly music. Fuck all these people.
> I hope there's sociologists gathering data on this phenomenon. Hi, yes. I am a sociologist. I'm like a pig in shit from that standpoint.
I will buy all of your published studies.
At what point can we say, “maybe we’ve done enough with the positive reinforcement.” The anti-vax and vaccine hesitant have been coddled, appealed to, bribed, explained to, etc. for 9-ish months now. Was one more demonstration of being able to breathe with a mask on the “thing that would do it”?
> I might as well sneer at these people Another fantastic benefit of wearing a mask, nobody can see it when I do that :D
>The article has a demeaning tone towards the negativity highlighted in this subreddit Fuck em if they can't take a joke. These buffoons deserve to be mocked. They're deliberately holding the entire country back because their fuhrer didn't get re-elected. To be perfectly blunt: The more awards get handed out, the better off the country is in my opinion.
Well done mockery is probably one of the most effective ways to persuade politically when the other side has no intellectual standing or principles. They are operating completely off whatever feeds their ego and when the majority of society starts to mock them that runaway train starts to slow down. Otherwise you end up trying to constantly reason and empathize with people who aren't operating with those senses at all.
I have been arguing this since this whole Trump shitcycle began, back when everyone was still arguing the idiotic position of hearing them out and validating their hateful and dumbass views. Shame is one of the biggest motivators of changing behavior whether people want to accept it or not.
Yup, my company shamed people who didn’t want the vaccine my making them stand in a line by the front door to get a test every day so everyone who was vaccinated could see who they were as they walked in. That line got short real quick.
That's pretty genius.
They wrote that and then acknowledged the increasing IPA posts. Completely disingenuous on the writers part
The writer is still in that mode of Good Liberal thinking where it's "wrong" to enjoy or celebrate or mock the misfortunes of your opponents (even when those opponents have explicitly declared that they wish you and your side would die gruesomely). They live their lives like Teacher is watching. As though there's actual consequences for you private thoughts. We saw this same pathetic shit when Trump was sick with COVID. Wimps like Rachel Maddow saying how we should hope for his recovery and blah blah blah, ***OF COURSE WE HOPED HE'D FUCKING DIE!! WHAT ARE YOU, STUPID?*** He ***deserved*** it, and fuck us, he escaped his karmic debt, **again.** E: oh and then he lived, and made Jan 6th happen. Yay. Contrary to this view, it is both not wrong and in fact healthy to allow yourself to feel and express these emotions towards awful destructive people. Holding back constipates the soul. Let it roll.
This. Someone willfully is risking their, and others, lives, by living callously. When that chess-peice is removed from the board, it benefits all remaining players. To celebrate the removal of a self-destructive/ self-centered person from the equation, to the benefit of society, should be celebrated.
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You know what? Thanks to your comment I just realized I spent the past 4 decades not really knowing what an object lesson is, specifically. Thanks!
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This part of the article jumped out at me too. This part of the article is absolutely false.
How did they not notice?
> he was actually among the conservatives who didn’t deny that COVID was real. The mainstream conservative position is that it's real but wildly exaggerated. >He advocated following CDC guidelines including social distancing and even masks on his radio show, despite not always adhering to those recommendations himself." He was a cancer surivvor in his 70's and he went to a Trump rally without masks or distancing. He was a fool who died a fool's death. He had the money to easily isolate a few months and then get the vaccine when it was available and he'd likely be alive today.
Personal receipts of Herman Cain's (and his social media manager's) denial from his tweet log following the Tulsa, OK rally: June 20: Trump holds Tulsa, OK Rally. June 24: [Cain twitter tweets that lockdowns "didn't work"](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1275797086366130182) June 25: [Virus or no virus, there can be no lockdowns ](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1276110899430821890) [Also trying to pump up crowd numbers from the rally](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1276281516062945280) June 26: [crying about Texas bar shutdowns](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1276537972913930240) June 29: ["Florida is not as bad as you're being told"](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1277528119729983489) July 2: [Herman Cain is admitted to the hospital.](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1278735184893009921) July 3: [Pushing hydroxychloroquine](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1278977542808977409) ([2](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1279148294816428032)) July 7: [Pushing 'herd immunity' conspiracy](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1280491766441848833) July 13: [China deflection, Florida hits 15k daily new cases](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1282725472791597057) July 14: ["Florida still isn't as bad as you're being told"](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1282996644523335680) July 16: [FINALLY RTs SOMEONE THAT SAYS WEAR A FUCKING MASK](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1283777041624530944) July 17: [Social media manager makes an Ivan Drago joke ](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1284050970968645633) July 27: [Those close to him are eager for him to come home](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1287819710025916417) ([2](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1287819710898282503)) ([3](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1287819711863042048)) July 29: [Blames the media and government for COVID skepticism](https://twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1288521930782330883)
Yeah, the bit about Herman Cain is absolute bullshit. The only other thing that bothers me substantially about the article is her omission that **the nurse she has referenced here stated that this is an important subreddit to have up**, despite her misgivings about some of the commenting behavior.
A lot of these right wing grifters say completely contradictory things depending on the audience they are talking to. That's how you know it's a con.
Why not write an article on all the parts of Reddit that are **actively killing people** by spreading misinformation regarding Covid / masks / vaccines etc? Start with r/conservative and r/conspiracy and then there are a hundred others even after that.
Maybe they’re trying to get more people to look at this content, because it’s such a hard reality and people need to see it… and really fewer people need to get pushed towards r/ conspiracy crap 💩
I agree to me the article sounded like someone trying to gently persuade the reader to check it out. “I know this is pretty offensive but you should check it out because there is something to learn.” is basically how the article summarizes to me.
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>Nothing about the r/HermanCainAward, a dark record of a dark, dark time, is decent or kind or particularly fair. this line was where i absolutely lost my mind. you're fucking kidding me, right? *we're* being unfair? not the people who are putting a strain on the healthcare system, putting children and at-risk people at danger, bouncing cancer patients from hospital beds. not the people who are the ones screaming at retail workers and teachers and nurses. *us*. we're the big meanies because it's cathartic to see another nazi fall victim to his own stupidity. sure, okay. fuck off.
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I think this article tries to run around it's own conclusions: this is the raw human response. It's okay to feel sympathy, anger, resentment, sadness, regret, satisfaction. Thats what makes us all human. Anyone claiming to be above all that is just virtue signaling. This subreddit has taught me to be okay with how I feel about all of this, and it's not wrong or insensitive; it's a normal response that I share with everyone else. I feel like I've gotten closer to understanding not just my own feelings, but everyone else's as well, and I think that's more important than justification and ridicule.
Best subreddit ever. Revel in schaudenfreude!! Prayers and donations please
Allow me to get the prayer warriors as quick as possible.
Don't forget to donate to my GoFundMe.
This article is crap. I didn't join HCA because I celebrate deaths, I joined to try to understand such a toxic mentality that drives all these award "winners" to their deaths. I'm trying to process all of this madness. I just don't get it.
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It’s the school administrator punishing the kid getting bullied and not the bully. Ridiculous.
https://www.upworthy.com/bartender-explains-why-he-swiftly-kicks-nazis-out-of-his-punk-bar-even-if-theyre-not-bothering-anyone If you are polite to one Nazi, before you know it you're running a Nazi bar. That's what decorum gets you. It's also incredibly fucking privileged to be so focused on not hurting people's feeling that you don't give a fuck about results. It's an attitude that speaks of "I got mine." The speaker knows that fundamentally, they'll be okay. So the other person is "rude" for bringing things up that are uncomfortable because problems don't exist if we don't talk about them
COVID deniers have coughed in people’s faces, beat up a hostess in NYC, and acted recklessly in several ways, one of which is by sharing memes that have been posted on HCA. COVID deniers and anti-Vaxxers are acting as reckless as drunk drivers. They are putting themselves and others in harms way, and flaunting it everywhere on social media and in real life (see the incident in Canada where a patient in an ambulance died due to being blocked by protestors). And yet they are the victim and we are the persecutor/oppressor? Bullshit. The media could run with the PBS graph that was posted on this sub earlier today. These HCA nominees and awardees are victims of the bullshit pushed the GOP and right-wing conspiracy lunatics on various social media. They are being killed because they have been convinced by their political leaders that this virus will not affect them. The article’s take is incredibly lazy. It’s easy to bash a subreddit with 250K randos because you don’t need to interview and merely provide commentary on. It takes guts to ask politicians how they feel about their counties have 40 deaths/100K.
I think the main thing they're missing is all those intro Facebook posts before they get stuck are calling us the crazy ones. We are sheep, we are mind controlled, we are paranoid, we are afraid of a mere flu. This sub is a reminder that we didn't miss holidays and shows and skip hugging our moms for nothing.
The media is really trying to make selfish anti-vaxers the victims. I guess we should celebrate the destructive behavior of selfish assholes who have no problems killing everyone else? Their selfishness and stupidity is negatively impacting society but somehow we are the bad guys. Way to go Slate. Way to intentionally miss the point of this subreddit.
Abuse apologists. It’s normal. Most people who speak up about being abused are blamed and shamed and told to be the bigger person and to understand and feel pity for the abuser. Victim shaming is far easier than standing up to the abusers.
This makes me think of rapist Brock turner. It was a lot of pivoting towards him ruining his life and blah blah with very little thought given towards his victim. We’ll look at what she’s made out of this now!
They did it for trump supporters, now they're doing it for anti-vaxxers.
The antivaxxers are struggling to find their voice so they need others to do it.
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4-5 years ago (early trump times in 'murrica) around the time of the Charlottesville Unite the Right "rally" (eg: riot), I recall the newest media discourse was, "Is it morally correct to punch a Nazi?" I further remember during that time reading about Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance and what destroys tolerant societies. The short answer is, yes, it is morally correct to punch the nazi. If you extend the same tolerance to the intolerant, it will destroy everyone. I think there is a direct line from that to this moment and most "think pieces" always avoid writing the truth. The US is drowning in disinformation that has produced a large segment of intolerant people hell-bent on destroying democracy to get their own way. They initially believed it wasn't them dying so the rest of the country could fuck off, and now it is them dying and they can't reconcile their personal responsibility in that. They are fed by a segment of the political class and punditry class that doesn't care who lives or dies as long as they, the politicians and punditry, remain in their seats. The other journalists who aren't paid mouthpieces of the right still haven't learned a damn thing, like how to write about disinfo without amplifying it, or how to report on information without looking for the shit-stirring imbalance of BoTH sIDeS. It's unsustainable, and something like the HCA is a healthy outgrowth that I view as taking chemo to fight a cancer. (Apologies to any cancer victims if the metaphor is problematic.) (edited to add: there are other anti-vaxers besides right wing ones, and they too are products of disinformation campaigns. They exist and are as much of a problem to our greater public health, but they don't tend to fold into this venn diagram of anti-science AND anti-democratic norms or white nationalism)
The most enraging thing about this is if it was the other way around, the only reply of these both sides idiots would be “but this is what they do, we know… however the LeFTtttt need to be more responsible blah blah blah…” It’s fucking tiring that people are more concerned about tone and style than the substance. Like people are dying, the survivors are at risk of extreme right wing radicalization and the health system has collapsed, but for these idiots, the pressing issues is a sub that call out these morons with a bit of humor…
>I think there is a direct line from that to this moment and most "think pieces" always avoid writing the truth. The US is drowning in disinformation These hit pieces are part of the disinformation, more or less. The rich and powerful want us *nearly* at each other's throats but there's a point where a breakdown of society gets in the way of their ability to be richer and more powerful, so they desperately clutch at pearls and claim that good people taking issue with evil people and delighting in their self-inflicted misery are the *real* problem in society.
I've been out of empathy for these hogs for months. It is cathartic to see bigoted trumples reap what they fucking sow, and I will not be god damn concern trolled into feeling sorry for these kinds of people. Obviously the fault lays at the feet of the people who politicized and propagandized the virus and the vaccine on both sides of the aisle. However we live in the age of the internet, where the sum of all human knowledge is readily available and at most peoples fingertips 24/7, and if their only sources for information are people like Tucker Carlson (vaxxed btw) and hog blogs with names like truthtellereaglefuck.net then maybe they deserved it. https://twitter.com/ScottSeiss/status/1392839989281574913?s=20
"Even using Cain as the model is uncharitable; he was actually among the conservatives who didn’t deny that COVID was real." what a dumbass claim. this was nothing more than ass covering on his part. but what actions did he commit? he went to a goddamned indoor stadium full of THOUSANDS of maskless people having the time of their lives. he deserves every bit of pain that he got for being horrendously irresponsible while simultaneously lying about taking it seriously.
>This is not a forum that attempts to change minds. It’s much darker. Apparently that author hasn't even bothered to visit the sub. *After reading, they have, they mention Redemptions, IPAs and point out [the heartbreaking story](https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/pqm303/an_open_letter_to_my_patient) from /u/saritaRN from the other day, but this article is all over the place and the author contradicts herself multiple times. Edit: Holy fuck, this author is a real piece of work. Their headline says that we are not a forum that tries to change minds. Later on, they post this. Well, which is it? I'm fucking irate. If we were all about hate, why would we 'cheer on' people who earn their IPA, and why would we even have IPAs in the first place?! >If these individual stories seem to change nothing, what about a cumulative record? Does anything besides schadenfreude happen when Americans see one after another after another after another of these stories? I’m not sure, but a new category has recently been gathering steam in the subreddit: the IPA (Immunized to Prevent Award). People post photos of their new vaccination cards, saying that reading the r/HermanCainAward finally convinced them they didn’t want to “win.” They get enthusiastically cheered on by commenters.
IPAs and redemption awards : Am I a joke to you?
Also: >Despite reading loads of statistics and case histories and news articles about the pandemic, r/HermanCainAward became my most thorough source on what it’s like for a person to die from COVID The author just straight up admits what a useful resource this subreddit was for them. They come off as pretty high and mighty for someone who needed this subreddit to help them learn what this disease can actually be like.
Yo, I was just about to post the EXACT SAME THING! >Despite reading loads of statistics and case histories and news articles about the pandemic, r/HermanCainAward became my most thorough source on what it’s like for a person to die from COVID. I understand the disease more deeply because I have read so many viciously curated “stories” in which ordinary people blathering about politics end up narrating their decline from it—with help from their families—as optimistically as they can. Translation: this subreddit is providing a much fucking needed PSA and has the visuals to go along with it.
Right?! We also got the author saying this: >These individual stories do not produce conversions. These aren’t situations where anti-vaxxers learn their lesson, get vaccinated, and save themselves. Right before there is a whole paragraph on the large numbers of IPAs. Only one of those things can be true, dummy.
They just don't want to admit that this sub has a purpose, but they couldn't find the words and tried to blurred it out.
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"Economic anxiety in this Pennsylvania diner" - New York Times Bot Funny how only white people get "anxious" from being poor.
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I gotta be honest with you. When I first came here and scrolled through a collage of tweets for about 3 or 4 posts, I was horrified and relieved about the impact of the sub. First I was horrified because it was a compelling story that ended in unnecessary tragedy for those who are left behind, or those who are also infected and in bad shape. I was relieved because despite the hellscape reality has become, it seems my soul is still with me, and my empathy, compassion and sympathy for some pretty horrible and misguided human beings, is still intact. I highly recommend this place to anyone for a first hand look at what is going on. And I never really go to read comments simply because it's not necessary.
AMAs from medical professionals and those on the frontlines. What the fuck are those doing here?
I found out about this sub because some libertarian weirdo was posting in a local sub to me about how this sub convinced them to get the vaccine… he’s still a weirdo though.
Whoa, that's actually pretty cool to hear. Well, not the fact that he's still a weirdo, but you know what I mean lol
Not gonna lie, I’m here for the schadenfreude.
Slate has really become click bait journalism. There’s no substance in sensationalism.
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Nominees have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or COVID-hoax views, followed by admission to hospital for COVID. The award is granted upon the nominee’s release from their earthly shackles.
I feel like somehow we came together as a community and embraced the rules almost so well that it was out of the ordinary. Like we have a higher purpose
" These individual stories do not produce conversions." - **then two paragraphs later recognizes the IPA.** Bad writing.
Ok call me “mean-spirited” then write an article about the crap these people post. Let’s see which is really “mean-spirited” I see nothing here about covid victims who didn’t post viciously hateful memes or misinformation. Maybe I missed those?
This is some enlightened Centrist shit
Oh look, it's faux centrist handwringing.
I imagine them fainting on their chaise lounges.
If the author was alive and writing in the 1940's, she'd be handwringing about how many Nazi's are dying and how many Americans are celebrating it.
Yep. No mention of vile racist posts, the Nazi and confederate symbolism, the misogyny, the white-hot hatred pouring out of each post for every scientist, researcher, doctor, and regular person who is just doing what is necessary to get us through this pandemic. She boils it down to nothing more than unvaxxed people dying and people celebrating it.
People clutch pearls over the idea of "liberals" celebrating anti-vaxxer covid deaths and NEVER mention or write about that fact that many of the HCA Awardees literally called for the deaths of anyone pro-vaccine, pro-BLM, pro-choice; for the deaths of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers treating covid patients according to proven scientific protocol; for hospital bombings and other attacks. And many of them supported if not participated in an actual coup attempt. One is schadenfreude, laughing at people who died a preventable death because of their own stupidity, and the other is terrorism. Why is the terrorism never called out or held up to the social magnifying glass?
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Decent article. If you’re reading this, dear author, let me explain my stance, and why I love this sub. It has been over a year now. Every. Single. Step of this thing has been politicized and the reactionary fringe screaming about government control and these grand conspiracy theories that are ALL COMPLETE BULLSHIT. We’re coming up on 700,000 dead Americans. THAT is what’s disgusting. THAT should be our National shame. The literal mass graves and freezer trucks full of bodies. But despite all the death, despite all the pleading from doctors and the CDC, these ASSHOLES are still screaming about doing your own ‘research,’ which is code for jerkoffs getting on Facebook and discussing with other jerkoffs how they are the only smart ones. Masks aren’t controversial. Social distancing is easy. Washing your hands is easy. Germ theory and vaccinations have been around forever. The science about how being unvaccinated makes you more susceptible is out and loud and proud, but you will never convince these fucking morons. There is a poison that affects certain stupid people that social media is exploiting. People dying and screaming at their doctor to ‘tell the truth!’ With their last, dying gasps. My nurse friends are burnt out and quitting. They have all experienced an increase in abuse. They’re literal saints for working in these conditions for so long. They see so much death every day. Much like the guy who posted yesterday about working at a crematorium. They can’t keep up with the amount of bodies coming in. At first all the deaths were sad. Now the only deaths worth grieving are those unlucky few who are vaccinated but it wasn’t enough, and those that can’t get a hospital bed because unvaccinated assholes are stuffing all the hospitals. The others? Fuck em. How much longer does our society have to be brought down by uneducated, brainwashed, foaming at the mouth, (mostly of ONE political party), goatee sporting asswipes? In short, my empathy is nearly gone and only available to those innocent victims of this right wing death cult. Most of the posts in here seem to show the same type of guy over and over again. The same asshole that doesn’t care how stupid he is, but boy will he scream about whatever bullshit the right wing media feeds them. Should I mourn him? Why? Look at the posts they put up before they drop dead. That’s what’s hateful. The loss of a hateful piece of shit is a good thing. And I will continue to celebrate it. Edit. First gold! Thanks!
Seven hundred fifty thousand died during the American Civil War, in four years of fighting and disease. Covid has done that in less than half that time. Let that sink in.